Thursday, July 26, 2007

The New Boogie Man

So, you know how parents (and grandparents) used to (and presumably some still do) scare their kids into behaving by telling them stories about the boogie man, the monster in the closet, or whatever local scary legend there was?

Well, next time they act up, I'm thinking of telling my dogs that if they don't shape up, Ron Mexico is going to come take them away in the middle of the night...

(btw, I know I've been slacking here -- but I HAVE been throwing stuff on the tumblelog pretty regularly, so make sure you're keeping an eye on that feed too. In fact, that picks up posts here too, so if you want to watch just ONE feed, that'd be the one...)

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

We Live In Interesting Times

Per the "Ancient Chinese Curse" that wasn't.

An exciting day today, complete with bomb scare, evacuation, business continuity planning put to the test, random filtered details, sketchy news coverage, and eventually a return to normal by lunch time! Can't beat that.

In the end, it apparently was a misplaced or forgotten briefcase with someone's repair kit of some kind. It got blown up by the bomb squad to be on the safe side.

News coverage:

---The local NBC affiliate has my favorite quote in their article:
Police evacuated the building, along with Grease Hall and a journalism building. Police created a perimeter of yellow tape, as students and staff gathered to watch the investigation.
GREASE Hall! Looks like someone wasn't paying close enough attention to the spellcheck! :)

NBC appears to have the most complete/informed post-event wrap-up.

---10 TV (CBS affiliate) has it's own coverage, which was also reproduced by the Dispatch. I have to call them on a possible exaggeration - it mentions "several hundred" people standing around outside the buildings. Now, I suppose it's possible the crowds died down after I left the scene, but I definitely wouldn't call the crowd that I saw "several hundred".

---News Center (ABC & FOX local news) had to get in on the misspelling game in their article:
Baker Systems Engineering building as well as nearby Drees Lab and Campbell Hall were evacuated during the incident. No one was hurt and students and faculty were allowed to return to the buildings within a short time.
Not quite as fun as "Grease Hall", but still missing the trailing "E" there. They also mention Campbell Hall has having been evacuated, but everything I heard pointed to Journalism being the only building on the other side of Neil evacuated...

---
Mykola Bilokonsky actually has some really good coverage on his Newsvine page, though he also mentions Campbell Hall being evacuated... *shrug* What he's got is definitely more personal & more interesting than the short pieces the big money sources offer.

---There is currently no mention of this on The Lantern or UWeekly pages -- though I'm sure it'll be the front page of the Lantern tomorrow (what else is there to talk about all Summer), and I'd be pretty shocked if Corey Spring doesn't get his blog-on about it ....


Thursday, July 05, 2007

Action Movie MAYHEM


Been a good week for action movies! This weekend my Dad & I saw Live Free or Die Hard. You never know what you're getting into with these supersequels (part FOUR in this case), especially when it's been twelve YEARS since the last installment, and the star isn't exactly a young 'un. That said, I have to say this movie paid-off BIG TIME. It was extremely well done, a great addition to the Die Hard franchise, with some perfectly classic John McClane moments. Yes, there was some unbelievable stuff in there (the jet vs. semi-truck being the worst), but keep up your suspension of disbelief and enjoy the old-school action and great one-liners. And I have to say, the PG-13 rating didn't seem to hurt the movie at all. Only one F-Bomb in the whole movie, but the cursing (or lack thereof) didn't bug me at all. You NEED to see this movie. They even updated the song!



Monday night I saw Transformers with Hutch, Holly, Randy , Gary and Hutch's friend Tony. I have to say I had my qualms going in -- I played with Transformers, watched the cartoon and even read some of the comics, but I was never a HUGE Transformers fan - GI Joe always won top-spot for me. Still - how could a live action film do it justice? Well, I'd have to say this one did a pretty good job of it. The BEST part was hearing Peter Cullen's voice narrating & doing Optimus Prime once again. Totally brought me back to my childhood & gave me chills. The robots were VERY well done, looking well integrated into the scenes. The fight scenes were a little too busy to follow at times, and there were some rather big plot jumps (not necessarily a HOLE, but skipping something that should've been resolved) - but just like with Die Hard, I think it takes a backseat to a fun, VERY well done action movie. I could've done without Bumblebee pissing on the dude though...